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BIG PHYSICS, BIG QUESTIONS –

Patents

COMPUTER giant IBM appears poised to diversify into dentistry. European patent application (EP 619 100) reveals that the company’s researchers in New York have developed a laser system to drill teeth.

Some dentists are already experimenting with lasers. But these instruments emit long-wavelength light which cannot cut through enamel, so they can only be used for soft tissue.

IBM’s device uses short-wavelength ultraviolet light. The laser source is mounted in a drill-like body, and its beam is projected into the patient’s mouth either by an articulated lens and mirror or by an optical-fibre light pipe. The power and pulse length must be set so that the beam destroys rotten material but leaves healthy tissue untouched.

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According to the patent, the laser beam generates its own warning signals. As soon as the beam rises above the threshold for destroying caries, each pulse of the laser produces an audible pop accompanied by a plume of orange fumes. When all the caries have been removed, the pops and fumes stop. This warns the dentist to reduce the laser power.

The UV light also sterilises the patient’s tissue and saliva, protecting the dentist against infection.

Is this it?

THE Coca-Cola Company is laying plans for a promotion scheme that hides prizes in drinks containers. People learn they have won the moment they open the container. Coca-Cola’s recent European patent application 621 206 tells why this is easier said than done.

The prize notification must be kept separate from the drink, but the customer must not be able to spot the winning cans by weighing or shaking them before purchase. Coca-Cola’s team at Atlanta in Georgia believes it has the answer in a can with an outer shell that looks every bit like an ordinary Coke can, while inside there is a slightly smaller can which contains a liquid of identical weight to Coke.

The inner can is topped with a spring-loaded disc which carries the message identifying it as a winner. As soon as someone pulls the ring tab off the top of the outer shell, the disc pops up to display the message. So instead of getting a drink, the customer gets the chance to claim a prize.

An alternative scheme for bottled Coke, which is less likely to upset thirsty customers, hides a tiny message container inside the neck, under the cap. The rest of the bottle contains real Coke.

Capricious eyes

THE Casio Computer Company of Tokyo plans an electronic notebook that helps you put a face to a name. A photographic image of each subject would need too much memory. So Casio’s computer (European patent application 620 529) comes with a memory bank of face parts, which the user can piece together.

After entering a name and address in the usual way, the user runs through a library of picture components for hairstyle, eyebrows, eyes, nose and mouth. These break down into classes with descriptions such as “hairstyle with a sensation of cleanliness”, “disordered” and “sloven”. Facial outlines are divided into “prudent”, “punctual”, “optimistic” and “pessimistic”. Eyebrows may be “aggressive”, “speculative” or “passive”, and eyes “serious”, “frivolous” or “capricious”.

Safer overtaking

GERMAN car maker Daimler-Benz has filed a British patent application (2 277 653) for a car which detects whether there is a safe gap for overtaking.

The vehicle will have a radar device at the rear, for monitoring the space behind in the lane in which it is driving. Another radar at the front of the car monitors the space ahead. A third radar monitors the blind spot to the rear in the adjacent lane and a fourth radar monitors the space ahead of the car in the overtaking lane.

When the driver indicates that he or she wants to overtake, the detectors spring into action. The system computes the speed and position of any vehicles, and compares this with the driver’s reaction time and the car’s braking performance. If it judges that overtaking is safe, a light flashes the go-ahead; if not, another light flashes a warning.

Japanese games giants are ‘monopolistic’

SEGA and Nintendo have built an immense wall of patents and other intellectual property rights around their games systems, according to the recent report by the Monopolies and Mergers Commission on the supply of video games in Britain (255 pp, HMSO £19.75). These rights allow them to stop software companies selling games that run on Sega and Nintendo hardware, unless they use special, authorised memory cartridges. The MMC has given the companies three months to come up with proposals to end their “monopolistic” practices.

The MMC heard evidence that these cartridges cost more than twice the going rate – up to £16 each, instead of £6. Software companies must also pay a royalty to Sega and Nintendo, which trade insiders say is up to &dollar;10 a game. The MMC says this “distorts competition”, because money earned from the “excessive” price of software lets the Japanese companies keep down the price of their hardware consoles, and so ward off potential competitors.

Both companies have patented security devices which prevent cartridges working in their consoles unless they contain matching codes. Competitors could use the Patents Act 1977 to force Sega and Nintendo to grant them licences to use these patents. But the systems will not work without know-how about the codes, which is protected by copyright rather than patents and so need not be revealed. Both companies also have industrial design registrations on the appearance of their consoles and cartridges, and registered trademarks for game and system names. They claim copyright in the computer code used in the consoles and cartridges, and in all manufacturing blueprints and the mask layout for their integrated circuits.

Few companies have the legal resources needed to take on these formidable defences. It took the British company Codemasters four years to fight off Nintendo’s allegation that the Game Genie video game enhancer infringed Nintendo’s rights.

Patents information

Copies of patents, which contain fuller details and addresses of inventors, can be obtained from science reference libraries around Britain. For the details of free public access and purchase price, contact the British Patent Office at Concept House, Cardiff Road, Newport, Gwent NP9 1RH (Tel&colon; 01633 813535) or the Science Reference and Information Service, 25 Southampton Buildings, London WC2A 1AY (Tel&colon; 0171 323 7919).